Flexibility and reform may prove key to dealing with the ongoing drought
By John Upton and Climate Central | April 14, 2015
Unlike its golden-brown neighbor further south, Washington state was blessed with relatively generous storms over winter. But, as was the case in drought-stricken California,...
We live in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. It’s not a Mad Max landscape, but there’s a water shortage around here. With drought and warming summer temperatures, we decided to share five ways we’re conserving water.
1. Make berms and basins
We learned this a few years ago from Brad Lancaster—rainwater ha...
Hey, Seattle. Remember last winter? How pleasantly warm and dry it was, almost like you live somewhere reasonable and not in a pool of tepid water near Canada? Well, you’re paying for it now.
In a new article on Investigate West, reporter Robert McClure looks at the future of the city’s dwindling s...
by Elias Garcia
California looms at the precipice of a water crisis unseen in the history of the region. While many commentators and politicians are quick to blame markets for over-consumption, the current management system represents anything but open markets. For years, the government ...
About 38 million people in California, Nevada, Arizona, four other states and Mexico depend on the Colorado River for their water supply. As increased usage and years of drought diminish the river's flow, states are forming strategies to deal with what some experts call peak water--the point at whic...
Hugh Beggs of Santa Rosa, Calif., searched for coins in the middle of the Russian River in Healdsburg, taking advantage of the below-normal water flow.
By Adam Nagourney and Ian Lovett NEW YORK TIMES FEBRUARY 02, 2014
LOS ANGELES — The punishing drought that has swept California and much of ...
Drought, and the resulting shortage of melting snow, is driving the historic water shortages across much of the American West.
By Dennis Dimick, National Geographic
PUBLISHED APRIL 06, 2015
Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown announced his state’s first-ever mandatory water restricti...
By Dennis Dimick, National Geographic
PUBLISHED AUGUST 21, 2014
Aquifers provide us freshwater that makes up for surface water lost from drought-depleted lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. We are drawing down these hidden, mostly nonrenewable groundwater supplies at unsustainable rates in the western ...
Americans tend to take it for granted that when we open a tap, water will come out.
Western states have been dealing with water problems for a while, but they won't be alone for long.
As drought, flooding, and climate change restrict America's water supply, demands from population growth and energ...
Nearly three-quarters of new Oregon residents come from western states, many of which are suffering from severe water shortages.
PORTLAND, Ore. – It’s no surprise that Oregon, especially Portland, is a hot destination for transplants from around the country. Anyone who sits in Portland’s increasing...
When it comes to our water footprint, the majority of us think that it’s just made up of the water that we drink and use to wash with, when actually this far from the case – only making up roughly 5% of our overall consumption. It may sound surprising but the other 95% of our water footprint, is ind...
The end of the rainy season is nearly here, and California faces a long, dry summer with a Sierra snowpack that is only 33% of normal. There is no significant precipitation in the forecast for California through April 25, but the state still has another shot at a decent round of heavy precipitation ...
Water scarcity was, until recently, considered by most of the developed world to be like James Hilton's Lost Horizon: "far away, at the very limit of distance." However, the convergence of aquifer depletion from increasing agricultural, industrial and municipal water use with more frequent and...
With the threat of dwindling water and energy resources becoming increasingly real with each passing day, it is important for every person to contribute to the conservation of both. By adapting our daily behavior even just a little bit, we can reduce carbon emissions and can improve qualit...
The skinny rings of ancient giant sequoias and foxtail pines hold a lesson that Californians are learning once again this winter: It can get very dry, sometimes for a single parched year, sometimes for withering decades.
Drought has settled over the state like a dusty blanket, leaving much of the...
The recent spritz of rain notwithstanding, California is in the midst of what Gov. Jerry Brown called “perhaps the worst drought [the state] has ever seen.” And yet, despite the desperate state of affairs, every day the city of Los Angeles flushes hundreds of millions of gallons of potenti...
SACRAMENTO — In what could become one of California's biggest crises in years, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency Friday, an action that sets the stage for new state and federal efforts.
The governor also wants to focus Californians on the possibility of water shortag...
On January 9 thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical used to produce “clean coal”, spilled into Elk River, leaving 300,000 with no water supply. Trish Kahle asks - how could this happen?
Imagine yourself in the rugged countryside of the Appalachian Mountains, where you and your neighbors have live...
Colorado's water demands conflict with efforts to preserve the Yampa River
By Susan Bruce
The Tiger Wall above Warm Springs Rapids on the Yampa River got its stripes by trickling water and oxidation. It's tradition for boaters to kiss the wall for good luck before entering the rapids downstr...
